The sun was setting in Black Rock City on Monday night, and we were scrambling. The Lighthouses, one of the playa's biggest art projects this year, weren’t done, but the gates had opened to the public the day before. Hordes of thirsty Burners gathered against the caution tape, eager to come inside. I was stapling blue, undulating fabric to the walls in Elie (one of the angled Lighthouses flanking the 62-foot-tall main lighthouse, Brigid), and found myself temporarily alone. Hangry, cranky and pissed that I forgot to bring beer, I was trying to shove a staple gun into an unwieldy corner by straddling two wooden beams with my back against the spiral staircase’s steel support. 

The staple gun successfully popped, and I re-positioned to peek out the window. Numbskull , that skull-in-a-top-hat art car, had sidled up to our perimeter with the Willy Wonka soundtrack on full blast. I hadn’t even noticed there was music until my ears picked up “Pure Imagination.” My heart seized. Gene Wilder's familiar voice beckoned, “Come with me, and you'll be/in a world of pure imagination. Take a look, and you'll see/into your imagination.” Yep. I cried. The rush of pride, amazement, and honestly, shock that we got it all done in such spectacular fashion was overwhelming.

A splendid project like The Black Rock Lighthouse Service IS (or, “was” – we burned it down and stuff) made possible through dedication to this "pure imagination." Perched atop that beam was a splendid place for an unexpectedly poignant moment. At that point, I'd only been at Burning Man for four days, but a chunk of the crew had been working long hours in BRC for weeks. The end was near and the finished product was insanely impressive. The crazy part is that the first time it was fully assembled was the same time all BRC denizens saw it that Monday night. 

L to R: Coco, Brigid, Elie, Durga [in back], Artemis [not pictured] Photo by: Andrew Grinberg 

Aight, aight. Let's turn back this emotional dial a bit. That aforementioned moment was the culmination of Max and Jonny Poynton's vision to bring lighthouses, "structures typically associated with the coastline, [to] the desert with the same functionality purposes." The lighthouses sprang off the ground last year with the support of Tom Lee, and more than 60 volunteers out of American Steel Studios in Oakland, California brought it to the finish line with months of dedicated, hard work. 

In a Burner world that enjoys an astonishing mass of blinky-bloopy LEDs and mind-blowing playa tech, The Black Rock Lighthouse Service brought it back to basics. Our playa tech was exquisitely detailed wood (much of it reclaimed), fabric, glass, plaster, paint, and !fire poofers! Good ole hands took the place of complicated machinery, and regular tools made it easy for any eager volunteer to jump in and work a staple gun or helm a chop saw. Art of this scale takes a village, and people came out of the woodwork (... had to...) to help and revel in the creation.

I had a great f-ing time with this motley Lighthouse squad. You won't find a more highly skilled group of carpenters, welders, metalworkers, drafters, glass artists, project managers, textile designers, sculptors, machinery operators, fabricators, pyrotechnic madmen, accomplished generalists, staple gun wielders and overall grade-A hooligans who know their way around a 12-pack of Racer 5 while wielding power tools. The first wave of the BRLS crew arrived on the playa on August 13, a full fifteen days before the gates opened. That's a long, long time to sweat through manual labor in the sun. It’s not easy work, but very easy to get fried. One of our lead artists was so distracted that she chewed out a pair of gentlemen who crossed the tape to check out the Lighthouses before they were safely done. After chatting at length with these nice dudes, it didn't occur to her until the next day that one of them was Skrillex.

"Brigid" lighthouse interior. Designed by Raven Ember & Megan Lush. Photo by: Roesing Ape

The Black Rock Lighthouse Service was a cluster of four main lighthouses (named Brigid, Coco, Durga and Elie for guardian goddesses) connected by rickety – but structurally sound – drawbridges, three smaller lighthouses around the perimeter, and a sperm whale’s plaster skeleton several feet from the entrances. No two lighthouses had the same interior nor exterior.

"Dirga" lighthouse interior. Designed by Toshiaki Uchikoshi & the Mirrorbowler crew. Photo by: Roesing Ape

Realistically? Certain aspects of the build process suck. If you get involved in a large-scale Burning man art project like this (one of the biggest on the playa in 2016), you’re going to bust your ass and be frustrated with people who don’t do what you want them to do. Equipment will break. You’ll fall behind schedule. At the most crucial moments, you’ll run out of beer. Those 40 pairs of earplugs you bought will disappear, and the fancy food in your cooler will end up water-logged. Loading box trucks is exhausting. Unloading box trucks is exhausting. People hurt themselves. Those are the moments when you're scraping the bottom of the big art glam barrel. Oh and, uh, you might end up $28,000 in debt... (want to help? You can do so here). On that note, THANK YOU to the hundreds who contributed. These lighthouses wouldn’t have made to the playa without you. 

For those who ask, "How can you burn art you spent a quarter of a million dollars on?" – the outpouring of love, awe and support the crew received from friends and strangers alike made it all worth the effort. Burners left mementos, poems, ashes of loved ones, and messages of love. All week long, people came up just to share thanks. Working on a crew is a special thing, and receiving a community's gratitude as a group strengthens those peer bonds.

"Brigid" lighthouse observatory deck. Photo by: Emily Ward

Cersei would be proud. 📸 @jacobiat #blackrocklighthouseservice #burningman2016 #lighthouses #wildfire #burningman #thelittleburnersthatcould

A photo posted by Black Rock Lighthouse Service (@brlighthouseservice) on Sep 8, 2016 at 9:21pm PDT

The Lighthousers watched the girls burn as a crew from the 9 o’clock side. It felt full circle, and was a beautiful destruction to witness.

Once you're on a project from the inside, you'll walk away with a massive appreciation of what big art takes. I encourage everyone to seek out the opportunity to get involved, pre-, post-, or on-playa. This was my fifth Burn and by far the most time I've spent on a project. Sure, I didn't park it on the dance floor at Distrikt as much as years past, but that just meant I entered a different stratosphere of participation this year, and I loved it. I'll be chasing more big art in the years to come. 

What To Expect When You’re Expecting (To Make Lighthouse Art at Burning Man) 

The 2016 Black Rock Lighthouse Crew: Max Poynton, Jonny Poynton, Tom Lee, Jeremy Crandell, Gabriella Levandowski, Raven Ember, Megan Lush, Rebecca Anders, Gretchen Stamp, Toshiaki Uchikoshi & The Mirrorbowler Crew, Keith Trader, Gerald Spencer, Courtney King, Ash Lauth, Dave Keane, Paul Belger, Clifford Florio, Brook Buswell, James Lanham, Maggie Philipsborn, Leo Heffler, Stephanie Shipman, Sarah “Vikestress” Carter, Kenji Kenabis, Sinjin Knapp, Carla Riggi, Elizabeth Marley, Paul Belger, Paul Franke, Don Cain, Aaron Scott,Noah Dice, Gabriel Dice, Pam Ward, Michael Clancy, Michael Clarke, Zalia Aliriza, Annabelle Lombard, John Howell, Thwen Chaloemtiarana, Erik Kneer, Dave Keane, Jason Privett, Roesing Ape, Migle Ka, Michael Stevenson, Weston Call, Greg “Bernie” Blaug, Ben Burmingham, Alice Burmingham, Liz De Nola, Lightning Clearwater, Flag, Chan Lieberman, L2, Claire Lichnerowicz, Morteza Ansari, Mahogany Luciana, Ryan James Parker,  Scooz Major, Beth Cowan, Robert Bostrom, Steve Johnson, Stefan Dalkert, Betsy Dalkert, David Newsome, Samson Yeung, Mary Kretschmar, Pasha Reshetikin, Dani Felton, Nici Faerber, Larissa Linder, Marissa, Homer, Emma Locke, Yves Langston Barthaud, Margaret DeCuir, Andrew Grinberg